This invention relates to improvements in a magazine for housing or accommodating a recording medium, such as a film, for an electron microscope.
In the prior art, a feed magazine housing a film on which an image has not been formed and a receiving magazine adapted to house a film on which an image has been formed are provided on the same plane within a camera compartment. The film on which the image has not been formed is taken out at an opening in an upper cover of the feed magazine so as to then be transported to an imaging or shooting position, where the image is formed on the film by shooting. The film thus carrying the image is then re-introduced via the opening in the upper cover of the receiving magazine.
FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate the camera compartment of the above-described conventional electron microscope. In FIGS. 5 and 6, numeral 1 denotes a feed magazine, 2 a receiving magazine, 3 a film on which an image has not been formed, 4 a film on which an image has been formed, 5 a spring, 6 a table, 7 table supporting members, 8 a pawl, 9 a carriage, 10 rails, and 11 an electric motor. The numerals 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 denote gears, and the numeral 17 denotes a link member.
In the drawing, the feed magazine 1 housing the film on which the image has not been formed and the receiving magazine 2 housing the film on which the image has been formed, are placed in the same horizontal plane in the camera compartment where a vacuum is established during shooting. The film 3 on which the image has not been formed tends to bend and therefore is accommodated within a metal cassette to prevent this. The film 3 is biased upward at all times within the feed magazine 1 by the spring 5. The table 6 is placed at the shooting position and moved up and down by oscillating the table supporting members 7. The gears 12, 13, 14 and 15 are rotated by rotation of the motor 11 and the gear 16 revolves as a planetary gear. As a result, carriage 9 is moved linearly on the rails 10 by the link member 17. The carriage 9 is provided with a pawl 8 for engaging the cassette accommodating the film.
To perform photography, the motor 11 is driven to rotate the gears 13 to 16, whereby the link is moved linearly such that the film 3 on which the image has not been formed is extracted by the pawl 8 of the carriage and placed on the table 6. After photography, the table supporting members 7 are rotated counter-clockwise from the position shown to uplift the table 6. As the carriage 6 is moved rightward in this state, the image 3 on which the film has been formed is transported towards and received within the receiving magazine 2
The above-described sequence of operations is repeated to sequentially accommodate the film 3 on which the image has been formed within the receiving magazine 2.
As described above, the feed magazine and the receiving magazine are provided separately within the camera compartment of the conventional electron microscope and the cassette accommodating the film is taken out at the opening in the magazine upper cover and re-introduced at the other opening in the cover. The result is that the feed magazine and the receiving magazine are responsible only for feeding and receiving the film, respectively. In addition, the cassette has to be lifted at all times within the feed magazine. Consequently, not only is operability poor but the magazine and the overall camera compartment of the electron microscope are increased in size.
There has recently been proposed a new electron microscope system in which a two-dimensional sensor such as a stimulable phosphor sheet for storing electron beam energy is exposed to an electron beam passing through a specimen in a vacuum to have the electron beam energy stored in the two-dimensional sensor, the two-dimensional sensor is then exposed to light or heat to release the stored energy as light emission, the emitted light is photoelectrically detected to obtain an image signal, and the image of the electron beam which has passed through the specimen is reproduced by using the image signal (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 61-51738 and 61-93539). In this manner, image recording and reproduction can be realized with high sensitivity and high picture quality. To realize selective recording with the use of both the photographic film and the two-dimensional sensor, it is necessary to provide not only a feed magazine, a receiving magazine and transport means for the photographic film, but also a feed magazine, a receiving magazine and transport means for the two-dimensional sensor, as disclosed in Japanese Application Laid-Open No. 61-234125. The result is a camera compartment that is large in size.